Lumigon T2 hands-on at MWC 2012 (video)

We've been waiting for Lumigon to get around to launching its Android opus for a while now. Fortunately, MWC is precisely the right kind of place for a new company to catch the eye of the mobile press. With Ice Cream Sandwich and Bang and Olufsen involvement, we had to take a look at the Lumigon T2 for ourselves. First impressions are after the break, with a video run-through of the stainless-steel lined phone thrown in for good measure.

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Lumigon T2 hands-on

Lumigon's really focused the design on its latest handset. Android 4.0 was a pleasant surprise, but it was all about the build quality, which was satisfyingly solid, with stainless steel sides and a soft-touch plastic finish on the back. Lumigon's CEO Lars Gravesen told us that this is likely to get a harder coating ahead of the retail launch but we liked the existing tactile finish -- it was a pleasure to hold. However, the weight of the phone, despite the handy 3.8-inch Gorilla Glass-coated screen size (resolution undisclosed), remains quite substantial. Those that bemoan the lightweight feel of plastic-based will likely relish the heft on the Denmark-based device, but it's a noticeable weight in your hand. There's also an extra hardware button above the screen that's customizable to your favorite functions and apps, although we'd need to try this out in real-life before we see whether it'll really shake up our typical phone use.

The Lumigon T2 isn't playing the processor power game, but runs on a respectable single-core Snapdragon S2, clocked at 1.4GHz, with battery life purported to be around a day. In use, the phone is suitably swift, although there are a few software hiccups left to be worked out -- its two-stage camera button but it seemed unwilling to work on our demo device. The camera itself has an auto-focus 8-megapixel sensor, capable of 1080p video capture, while the UI is a restyled version of stock ICS -- there's nothing earth-shattering here. Audio is where Bang and Olufsen's ICEPower came in and gave the T2 plenty of oomph from its loud speaker, with a respectable amount of bass -- for a smartphone. The phone will also arrive boxed with in-ear headphones to maximize that Bang and Olufsen know-how.

We were also particularly taken with the remote app, which made use of the IR blaster at the top of the device, capable of "learning" your own remote's functions and replacing them. You can also assign accelerometer-based gestures to scroll between titles -- as we saw demonstrated with Apple TV at today's event. If the combination of Gorilla Glass, Bang and Olufsen and stainless steel gets your pulse racing, you shouldn't have to wait long -- the T2 is set to launch before the end of this half of 2012, priced at around 500 euros.